By Pitchfork on August 19, 2014 at 3:57 p.m. EDT

The Rentals, the long-running project of ex-Weezer bassist Matt Sharp release their first full-length in 15 years, Lost in Alphaville, August 26 via Polyvinyl. Guests include Patrick Carney of the Black Keys (drums), Jessica Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius (vocals), Ryen Slegr of Ozma (guitar), and Lauren Chipman of the Section Quartet (strings). Right now, Lost in Alphaville is streaming in full via Pitchfork Advance, our immersive music streaming platform designed to emulate the classic album experience. Listen here until August 26.

By Carrie Battan on March 30, 2012 at 12:20 p.m. EDT

Swedish metal giants Opeth are planning a bundle of reissues of material from their early-to-mid 2000s period. On April 10, The End Records will re-release 2002's Deliverance, 2003's Damnation, and 2001's Blackwater Park, along with the 2004 live DVD and 2xCD live recording Lamentations. The Blackwater Park package will include a bonus DVD and a 28-page full-color booklet, while Lamentations contains a documentary about the making of Deliverance and Damnation. All of the albums were produced by Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson.

By Carrie Battan on January 31, 2012 at 10:45 a.m. EST

Still running on the steam of their 2011 LP The Hunter, Mastodon have announced a long tour. Beginning tonight, the band will route through Europe, the UK, Australia, and then North America. They'll be joined by co-headliners Opeth and masked "satanic" Swedes Ghost as openers for the North American "Heritage Hunter" dates. (They'll be alternating closing out the North American shows with Opeth.) After the full schedule, watch the new video for "Dry Bone Valley".

By Larry Fitzmaurice on September 23, 2011 at 9:41 a.m. EDT

Swedish metal titans Opeth's tenth and latest LP, Heritage, is out now via Roadrunner. There's a Phil Mucci-directed video for the album cut "The Devil's Orchard", and as that title suggests, it's plenty evil and psychedelic. Watch it below.

By Tom Breihan on August 6, 2010 at 3:55 p.m. EDT

By Tom Breihan on February 2, 2009 at 4:45 p.m. EST

-- Rap biopic alert! The former music writer Cheo Hodari Coker, who adapted the script for the Biggie biopic Notorious from his own surprisingly great Biggie book of the same title, has signed on to write a Run-DMC biopic. According to the Hollywood Reporter, he'll adapt Bill Adler's book Tougher Than Leather: The Rise of Run-DMC for the horribly named production company DJ Classicz, which hopes to secure the involvement of Run, DMC, and Russell Simmons. Weirdly enough, this won't be the first Run-DMC biopic, though the last one had basically zero basis in fact and also had Blair Underwood playing Russell Simmons. And lest you think Coker only adapts biopics from books about rappers who were murdered (though, honestly, that wouldn't be a bad career niche), the Hollywood Reporter reports he's also writing a movie called Lowriders, which I really hope is like The Fast and the Furious except with lowriders.

-- The story of DMX's recent headfirst slide into insanity now has a climax: On Friday, an Arizona judge sentenced the once-great rap star to 90 days in prison and 18 months probation on charges of theft, drug possession, and animal cruelty, The New York Times reports. Please, please let this guy get his life back together.

-- Prog-metal nerds rejoice: Swedish pastoral death metal kingpins Opeth will spend the month of May touring the U.S., bringing epic Norwegian Viking metal survivors Enslaved along with them. Average song length at this show is going to be well into the double-digits.

-- Justin Greaves, a former member of doom metal institutions like Electric Wizard and Iron Monkey, now fronts the awesomely named stoner-folk band Crippled Black Phoenix. In Crippled Black Phoenix, he gets help from plenty of acquaintances who want to prove how down they are with doom metal, like Mogwai bassist Dominic Aitchison. On April 15, Portishead's Geoff Barrow will release 200 Tons of Bad Luck, the band's second album, on his own Invada Records.

-- Warp Records is riding a nice little wave lately with Jamie Lidell and Flying Lotus, and the long-running IDM label hopes to keep it going with its latest discovery, electro-pop producer Tim Exile. Warp, in association with Planet Mu, will release Listening Tree, Exile's third album, on March 17.